Days 3 and 4 - Dean Martin & Jerry Lewis

I've had an unusually busy week so far, and my belated blogging is evidence of that.  So I decided to do two posts at once today. 

I first started watching the old Martin & Lewis comedies back in high school.  I had been a long time fan of Frank Sinatra by that point, and from Frank I started listening to the Rat Pack, which led to Dean Martin, which led to Martin & Lewis.  Most people today do not know about this comedy team, as I mentioned in an earlier post.  However, Martin and Lewis left their mark on the entertainment world - first as a team and then as individuals.   

"Side by Side"
Dean Martin was playing the nightclub scene as a crooner when he crossed paths with new comic Jerry Lewis.  The two hit it off and soon started performing together, hoping to get the best of both worlds - fans of crooners and fans of stand-ups.  They went on to perform for larger and larger audiences, scored some radio appearances and broke into film in 1949 with My Friend Irma.  They would go on to make 15 films together and ended a ten-year partnership with a much-publicized break-up in 1956.  These were the guys who stopped traffic in Times Square - one of the biggest and most successful partnerships in entertainment history.

But let me tell you the truth - they were just as good apart as they were together.  I often describe their teamwork skills by describing how each of them worked.  In their act, Dean was the smooth crooner and ladies' man who also stood as Jerry's straight man.  Jerry, in contrast, was the bumbling, zany comedian.  I don't know who actually wrote the jokes of if they worked on them together, but their sense of timing is impeccable.  I'm watching their appearances on the old Colgate Comedy Hour (1950 - 1955) right now, and in the era of live television, their timing is even more impressive.  However, when they flub a line, they are both quick enough on their feet to just go with it - something I fear a lot of actors today can't do. 

I've already written about The Caddy in my other Martin and Lewis post, so here are some of their other movies: My Friend Irma (1949) is a wonderful old-fashioned comedy of romance.  Dean has some of his best songs on film in this picture, including "Here's to Love."  I also really enjoyed their movie Scared Stiff (1953).  It has some of the best lines from Dean, like "Don't give me away, please!  Someday you may have a little boy and he'll grow up and commit an innocent murder too!" and "I'm just dropping a few eaves." Hollywood or Bust (1956) is fun too, but the last one that the team made and the relationship isn't as easygoing as in the earlier films. 

Martin and Lewis are part of the many successful comedy teams in entertainment history and one of the best of the crooner-comedian acts.  But in 1956 artistic (and probably personality) reasons caused the guys to go through a sort of divorce and cut all ties.  It was highly publicized and caused a lot of uproar, but the guys pretty much kept their opinions mostly to themselves.   

Dean & Jerry appearing on the Colgate Comedy Hour singing their famous duet "Side by Side"

Dean Martin

Dean's career had launched before Jerry because of his great voice, and after the split, that kept him employed.  Dean managed to score some more film roles where he took a turn for more serious acting.  Watch how great he is in the character study Some Came Running (1958) and his dead-on performance as a recovering alcoholic in Rio Bravo (1959).  Some people would say Frank Sinatra helped revive his pal's career, but when you watch how good his acting is in these pictures, you realize he didn't need any help.  In 1960, he teamed up with Judy Holliday in Bells Are Ringing, one of my favorite musicals.  His character, Jeffrey Moss, is part of a writing team that recently broke up and now he's too afraid to go out on his own for fear that everyone will say his partner was the one with all the talent.  It hits a bit close to home at first glance, but knowing Dean's cool demeanor and enormous amount of talent, I seriously doubt he ever struggled so much with his confidence.

What I love about Dean Martin is that he always came off as the star who never cared if he was a star.  He certainly didn't crave all the attention that Jerry did.  In his time with the Rat Pack in Vegas, Dean was the one who drank apple juice on stage and read comic books in his hotel room instead of staying up partying.  One of my favorite Dean Martin stories is when he and his wife threw a party at their Beverly Hills home one night.  It was getting late and Dean disappeared from the group.  A while later the police showed up, saying they had gotten a call about disturbing the peace and broke up the party.  Frank Sinatra, a guest, went looking for Dean and said "Dean, the cops are here breaking up the party!  Who could have called - the whole neighborhood's here!"  To which Dean said calmly, "I called.  I'm tired and want to go to bed."  That's the Dean Martin I adore. 

Dean's career would expand when he began hosting the weekly Dean Martin Variety Show in 1965.  It was a great, great show and set the standard for all the ones that followed.  Dean's likeability and friendliness allowed him to invite all his Hollywood buddies to make appearances.  Can you really imagine anyone else in Hollywood getting John Wayne to lip-sync a song on your show or coaxing Jimmy Stewart to do an impression of Bette Davis?  Heck, even Governor Ronald Reagan wanted in on the act.  I think what speaks volumes about Dean Martin though is his enduring presence and ability to entertain legions of fans across generations.  Even though he is gone, so many people today are finding out who he was and falling in love with that Italian crooner's charm.  You know, when the Beatles came to America and everyone thought that the old crooners would be finished in the wake of rock and roll, there was a great moment.  After a few years of holding the #1 record on all the charts in America, the Beatles were ousted - not by Elvis, not by a young rock star, but by a tried and true saloon singer.  Dean Martin came back to wow everyone with his new version of "Everybody Loves Somebody."  It's true, everybody does love somebody sometime, and all the world loved Dean Martin.

Jerry Lewis

There has been a lot written about Jerry Lewis' contributions to film and television after his split with Dean.  He went on to become very famous in his own crazy comedies, becoming a box office draw in the late fifties.  But his popularity really took off overseas, particularly in France, where his brand of humor seemed to strike home.  He was even given the Legion of Honor despite not speaking a word of French.  Jerry's antics are quite painful to watch and his falsetto voice often grates on the ears.  Personally I had trouble watching him when he didn't have Dean to temper his insanity.  But Jerry went on to direct and set up his own film company.  He even taught a film class where Steven Spielberg was his student (who knew?).

Another turnoff about Jerry is his intolerable grabs for attention and downright thoughtless remarks (like saying a woman can't be believed once a month because her period makes her stop thinking).  However - and I say this very strongly - for all that he has said and done, Jerry was one of the first advocates for research into muscular dystrophy and went on to become the spokesman and national chair of the MDA.  His efforts are so well known through his Labor Day telethon, where he has helped raise over $2 billion.  Today I read that for the first time in something like 40 years, Jerry will not be a part of the MDA's telethon.  I don't know if it is his health or other factors, but he will be missed.  One of my good friends in college, Ian, had a form of muscular dystrophy and had been helped a lot by MDA and enjoyed their summer camp program.  Not long after we had first met, I mentioned I was a fan of the old Martin & Lewis films and lamented the fact that no one of our generation knew who they were.  Ian smiled and said "I know who they are.  I'm one of Jerry's Kids."  We bonded right then and there.  To this day I can't watch anything of Jerry's without missing Ian, and for all of Jerry's faults and outrageously tact-less comments (to put it kindly), he will always have the thanks and admiration of millions.      

I could write a lot more about each of these guys and about their work together.  They separated in 1956, but were reunited on the national MDA telethon in 1976 as a surprise arranged by Frank Sinatra.  And as they managed to bring smiles to not only their fans, but to children like Ian, I'll end with another Martin and Lewis song, "We hope to get you merry-like / Get Dean-and-Jerry-like / We hope we'll get your long face lost!"

The Caddy (1953)

About eight or ten years ago, I walked into my local Blockbuster and spent a few minutes looking through the racks.  It wasn't a large store, but seemed to have a pretty nice variety just the same.  I finally spotted a sales associate at the counter and asked her if she could help me.  I asked if they had any of the Martin and Lewis films.  She looked like a high-schooler and had the typical bored teenage attitude.  She gave me a blank stare as if I had spoken French.  She turned up her nose and asked, "who?" and that's when I knew I was in trouble.  Of course Blockbuster didn't have any of the Martin & Lewis films, so why should the staff know about them?  I left soon after and went home.  I felt disappointed, not because they didn't carry the films, but that most people today have no idea who these guys were.  If you had asked someone back in the late forties and fifties, he or she would probably have told you all about the Italian singer from Steubenville (Dean Martin) and the skinny Jewish comedian from Newark (Jerry Lewis).  You might even hear about Times Square.

But since this is 2011, I'll tell you about Times Square.  There are very few times in history when New York's Times Square has been completely shut down by a crowd of people.  I'm not including New Year's, either.  No, I'm talking about swarms of people gathering and physically shutting down the intersection.  It happened back when Martin & Lewis were on top - they were the number one act in America and growing in popularity around the world.  The story goes that the guys were performing in Times Square and had gone to their hotel room in one of the places on the Square.  They were leaning out the window and all their fans saw them and began to crowd in to see them.  I don't know if they threw fliers for their show or autographed photos or what from their window, but they drew one of the biggest crowds in New York's history.  If you can't imagine it, the footage of the event was kept and integrated into one of their films - 1953's The Caddy.  

I just finished reading an incredible book by Mark Rotella called Amore: The Story of Italian American Song.  I can't give it enough stars.  It chronicles not only the history of Italian American singers, but also provides a history of where that music started and the journey and hardships of Italian immigrants as they came to settle in America.  The book mentions the film The Caddy for a number of reasons.  The movie focuses on an Italian American family in San Francisco, where the father is a fisherman.  His son, Joe Anthony (Dean Martin), hates fishing and tries his hand at playing golf, hoping to win enough money to support his family.  His soon-to-be brother-in-law Harvey (Jerry Lewis) is the son of a pro-golfer, and takes on the job of Joe's caddy.  The Caddy references Joe DiMaggio's real life, as he too was a son of Italian immigrants.  His father was also a fisherman, he grew up in San Francisco, and he later left the family business for a life in sports.  My favorite line in the film comes from Joe's first introduction to a group of upper-class golfers at the country club.  The group (all very wealthy and noticeably with a WASP background) asks Joe what business his family is in, to which Joe replies "fish."  An English gentleman asks "exporting or importing?"  Joe, without missing a beat, replies just as arrogantly, "catching."       

Did you know that Joe DiMaggio refused to eat garlic?  He refused to eat it later in life because he didn't want the stereotypes that went with such an "Italian" smell.  While the movie's Joe Anthony didn't have that problem, you can't help but notice the "Americanization" of the name Joe Anthony.  That name change is common with many Italian-American singers; even Dean Martin was born Dino Crocetti.  The only one that I've read about who kept his given name was a blue-eyed crooner from Hoboken named Francis.  But I'm getting off track.  The second reason Mark Rotella discussed The Caddy in his book was because it features the very first time Dean Martin ever sang "That's Amore."  The scene (and the song) is so stereotypical that it borders on insulting, which is why Dean Martin initially refused to record the song.  In the movie, Joe's family throws him a huge welcome home celebration at the family restaurant.  A feast of traditional Italian foods is served and the guests are all clearly Italian families (with the exception of Harvey).  Joe's mother asks him to sing and he obliges, belting out the song, "That's Amore."  The song would not only sell millions of copies, but would define both Martin's career and the image of Italians in America.  Italians knew about love.  They knew how to laugh at their own stereotypes.  They weren't just the garlic eating laborers; they were the opera stars, baseball heroes and entertainers who could stop traffic in Times Square.

I know Martin and Lewis weren't the first comedy team to try the crooner-comedian formula.  Crosby and Hope had perfected it years earlier when they began making their "Road" pictures.  And Martin and Lewis aren't the most memorable of all comedy duos.  I wonder if that girl at Blockbuster would have recognized Laurel and Hardy or Abbott and Costello.  But what Dean and Jerry had really was magical - the right balance of comedy, music, and good old fashioned fun, not to mention a great working relationship.  And they knew their audience.  That being said, today we might cringe at some of Jerry's clowning (and heaven knows his fake voice is like nails on a chalkboard at times).  During the peak of their popularity, they made The Caddy.  It isn't a monumental film or even a great one for that matter, but it is a wonderful slice of history.  It shows us what made people laugh in the 1950s and also captures something in the course of Italian American history.  The presentation of the Anthony family is a horribly stereotyped character sketch, but one thing hits home - Joe's ability to transform from the son of immigrants to a famous celebrity.  It's the American dream, served up with an unforgettable song.

*A note on the photo -  I couldn't figure out how to format a caption, so here's the story.  The church is Sts. Peter & Paul Church in the Italian neighborhood of San Francisco.  It's the church where Joe DiMaggio and Marilyn Monroe posed for wedding photos (they had been married in the courthouse).  I made sure to find the church and snap a photo during my trip there.  So not only could the son of an Italian fisherman become an American hero, he could also marry the most desired actress in Hollywood.

Scared Stiff (1953)

Intro.

We all have those feel-good movies that we watched when we were younger, right?  When I was in middle school, I started watching the old Martin and Lewis comedies.  My mom recently gave me a box full of my old VHS tapes, among them all of my Martin and Lewis movies.  This past week was horrible, so one night when I was stressed to the max, I decided to settle down with my old friends, Dean and Jerry.  And sure enough, that old charm of those 50s comedies came back and melted my stress away.

Overview

Scared Stiff opens in a nightclub where we find Larry Todd (Dean Martin) as the star singer who is having a fling with one of the showgirls.  She, however, is the main squeeze of the biggest mob boss in town - Shorty.  Shorty orders Larry to come to his hotel room to "work things out" but Larry's best friend, bumbling busboy Myron (Jerry Lewis) decides to go first and scare Shorty into leaving Larry alone.  Larry goes after him and of course things go from bad to crazy as Larry thinks he has accidentally shot someone.  With the police after him, he and Myron escape with the help of a beautiful woman named Mary Carol (Lizabeth Scott), who has just inherited Lost Island, just south of Cuba.  Lost Island is supposedly haunted, populated by zombies, you name it.  Mary will not be stopped, even after voodoo threats and offers to buy her out.  Larry, who has become quite taken with Mary, promises to go with her to check out the island.  Myron of course comes too and after a lot of terrifying run ins with ghosts and a zombie, the threesome finally find the real secret of Lost Island - a secret that people are willing to kill for.

Background and Highlights
Martin and Lewis became the leading comedy act in the US in the early 1950s.  They teamed up in a nightclub in 1946 and stayed together until 1956.  They made a total of 16 films together and starred on the Colgate Comedy Hour.  In fact, they were so popular, they once completely stopped traffic in Times Square when they leaned out of their hotel room window and all of their fans gathered around.  The fans themselves filled Times Square and inspired a scene in the film The Caddy.  Theirs was perhaps the most successful of the crooner-comedian pairings and it made national news when they broke up and went their separate ways.  Some of their films are very silly, some good and innocent fun, and still there are a few that touch on that once close but then strained brotherly relationship.  Scared Stiff came in the middle of their film career, and is still in that innocent fun mode, where they had the formula to make America laugh.

There is a good balance in this film - Jerry is able to have some great comic routines like the argument with himself in a mirror and his amazing impersonation of Carmen Miranda (oh my gosh, Jerry trying to dance in those heels while keeping all that fruit balanced on his head makes the whole film worth watching).  And Dean has some fantastic musical numbers, including what may be my favorite in all of the Martin & Lewis films - "When Someone Wonderful Thinks You're Wonderful".  They are great together too, and Lizabeth Scott is a wonderful addition as a great leading lady.

What really struck me when I watched this time, was how funny Dean Martin could be.  I knew that when he later performed with Frank Sinatra on stage, he was responsible for writing their jokes, but I've heard it wasn't so clear who wrote what for Martin and Lewis.  Regardless, he delivers some of the best lines in this film.  A few favorites include: "Don't give me away, please!  Someday you may have a little boy and he'll grow up and commit an innocent murder too!" and "I'm just dropping a few eaves." 

Review
Scared Stiff isn't necessarily a classic - it's not in the ranks of The Philadelphia Story or Some Like It Hot.  It is a wonderful comedy though and a great example of what Martin and Lewis could accomplish at the height of their career.  It has something for everyone - Jerry's juvenile antics appeal to younger crowds while Dean's more subtle jokes (and crooning) appealed to older crowds.  It's also a good look at what entertained audiences in the early fifties.  As I wrote earlier, this was one of my favorite movies from when I was about thirteen and I love it even more now.  It still has that innocent, feel-good quality that so many of today's comedies are missing, and I recommend it.

Fun Facts
First, there is a great, great cameo at the end of the film, which I won't spoil, but it relates to a cameo that Dean and Jerry had in an earlier film.  Also worth mentioning is how Larry, upon seeing the underground railroad tracks and spooky lanterns says "reminds me of my hotel room in Steubenville."  Steubenville, Ohio is, of course, Dean Martin's hometown.